A Brooklyn woman was wrongly deemed dead by the government. 2 years later, she's still haunted by the error.
NEW YORK — Every year, the government wrongly marks thousands of people as deceased, according to audits done by the government on itself.
It can negatively impact the ability to get a job, a loan and more, and it happened to one Brooklyn woman, who said the problem has caused a years-long struggle.
Woman wrongly deemed dead says she's not getting social security benefits
Sandra Hazel says in 2022, as she struggled to set up her retirement benefit with the Social Security Administration, the agency wrote to her: "We recently discovered that our records wrongly showed you as deceased."
"How can you say that I'm deceased when I'm alive?" Hazel said.
Two years later, she says that dubious death still haunts her.
The IRS sent her a letter last August saying it couldn't process her tax return because the listed social security number "belongs to someone deceased."
"And I'm not getting no benefits from social security, none," Hazel said. "I have rent to pay, I have bills to pay."
She says she's also been unable to enroll in Medicaid, and she's now worried she may be a fraud victim.
The SSA says it can't comment on specific cases.
Government error can cause "paralyzing" financial problems, attorney says
Hazel isn't alone. A 2019 report from the SSA Advisory Board found each year, 7,000-12,000 people are wrongly deemed dead.
Minneapolis attorney Hans Lodge says the problems have caused financial chaos for his clients.
"It's paralyzing," he said. "There is nothing you can do with your credit when you are 'deceased' in the eyes of the credit bureaus, consumer reporting agencies, more generally, or lenders."
That's why Lodge says you should contact your local SSA office the second you think something's wrong.
In a statement, the agency told CBS News New York it takes "immediate action to correct our records and we can provide a letter that the error has been corrected that can be shared with other organizations."
"They may not even be able to open a bank account, something that simple, and so that's why its such a serious problem when
it happens. And it needs to be rectified very quickly," Lodge said.
The SSA would not agree to an interview with CBS News New York, but a spokesperson did send a general statement saying the agency's records are highly accurate and it has to correct less than 1% of its death reports.
